California teen recovers devastating coma thanks fish oil

With their teenage son in a coma, a California family was willing to try anything to bring him back. And with a new type of treatment, their son has made a miraculous recovery — thanks to fish oil. Grant Virgin, now 17, of Palm Desert, Calif., was involved in a near-tragic car accident last September when an unidentified woman crashed into him and drove off — even after stopping to survey the damage, the Desert Sun reported. Virgin was in a coma and was in really bad shape.

You should read the article. They told the family to “let him go.” That’s a fairly common attitude toward people with brain injuries or severe disabilities. After the patient recovers, there’s a big rush to deny the cruel things that were said in the heat of the moment.

I did read the article before I posted. I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that G Larry was referring to certain Freepers as the Pull the Plug Gang. In that case, I stand by my statement that I’ve never seen a Freeper suggest pulling the plug on a coma patient.

If we’re talking about the general population, I agree that it’s ridiculous to stop providing life support to a patient in a coma.

My daughter was in a devastating car accident in 2006 when she was 17. Glasgow coma scale was one point above death when they got her to the trauma center, after using the jaws of life to extract her. She was in a coma for 2 weeks, prognosis was not good. Severe brain injury. After she "woke up" they put her in rehab. She was not good. I watched through a 2-way mirror when she had her first speech therapy. She didn't know what a shoe was, she didn't know what anything was when shown pictures of objects. I started crying and left the room. I couldn't take it. I brought her fish oil and vitamin B complex every day. I never asked her nurse or her neurosurgeon if she could have it. I didn't want to be told I couldn't give her any, because when I asked him if he prescribed it for patients he said he didn't. I asked if it would interfere with any of her meds, I think she was on seraquel, and he said it wouldn't. He just didn't think it would do any good.

She started making steady progress - I was in that hospital with her every day. Her doc was amazed at her recovery. The nurses called her their "miracle girl". I told him when she was about to be discharged that I had been giving her fish oil. He now prescribes it for all his patients. I'm very happy to report that my daughter has made a near full recovery, she went to school for phlebotomy, got her certificate, is working and living on her own. She continues to take fish oil that her doctor prescribes. I can't say enough for fish oil.

Coma is frequently called brain death.

Bull.

In the United States, brain death is defined as no cerebral activity whatsoever. None. Zip. Nada. A comatose patient is not brain dead. They are comatose. They still have measurable brain activity, however little that may be. Brain dead is dead. Dead, dead, dead. Nothing at all going on upstairs.

The problem is the media loves these recovery stories. As they should. They make people believe in miracles. They'll change the narrative to conclude a patient was "virtually" brain dead or "considered" brain dead when in actuality they were never diagnosed as brain dead in the first place.

It’s an invented term used to keep bodies alive for transplant purposes.

No, it's not. The concept of brain death evolved separately from organ transplantation.

The term didn’t exist before the 1970’s.

Yes, it did. Even the Report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School to Examine the Definition of Brain Death dates to 1968. They didn't meet in 1968 to create a term; they were trying to reach an agreement on the definition of 'brain death,' which term was already in use.

You can go back to the 1963 Schwab, Potts, and Bonazzi A. study on using EEGs to determine brain death, and even further.

Correction: The Harvard Ad Hoc Committee defined ‘irreversible coma’ using criteria for brain death. Modern references to the committee report use the term ‘brain death’ in the title, although the original 1968 title of the committee report used the term ‘irreversible coma.’

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